Craft a Dramatic Vector Landscape Environment

Jul 9th in Illustration by Jonathan

This tutorial will show the intermediate Adobe Illustrator artist how to make a dramatic landscape environment. You should have a basic understanding of Adobe Illustrator tools before you begin this tutorial, as the tutorial moves at a rapid pace.

Author: Jonathan

Jonathan is a graphic designer with extensive hands-on knowledge of Adobe Suite Products. He has several years of experience using Adobe Illustrator, specifically, and seeks to share his skills with the design community.

Final Image Preview

First, let's take a look at the image we'll be creating. Below is the completed illustration to see what you'll be working toward.

Step 1

Start by drawing a matte that will cover the edges of the artwork. Put this artwork on its own layer and move it to the top of the Layers Palette.

Step 2

Easily make smooth grass using this technique. Using the Pen Tool, draw a slightly curved line. The trick to getting your lines flowing nicely is once you draw point 2 you have to click on that same point once more. In the "Wrong" diagram point 2 wasn't clicked after it was drawn. In the "Right" diagram, point 2 was clicked after it was drawn.

You simply click using the Pen Tool, you don't have to switch tools or anything. The reason you click twice on the same point is because the next point drawn will be directed back toward the top near point 1.

Step 3

It's better to draw a 3rd point instead of just going from point 1 to point 2 and back to the top (unless you're fairly handy with the Pen Tool).

Step 4

Now close the shape by going from point 3 to point 1.

Step 5

Fill the grass with a gradient.

Step 6

Draw several more grass shapes that are slightly varied.

Step 7

We achieve the curvy or windy effect by using the Warp tool.

Step 8

Select all of your grass shapes. Then click and drag over your grass to distort it. It's like painting, the further you drag the mouse, the more distorted the grass will become. The blue lines indicate how the grass will look once distorted.

Power Tip: Change the size and pressure of the distortion ring by double clicking on the icon in the palette.

Step 9

This is what the distorted grass looks like. You can distort the grass as many times as you like. However, the more distortion you do, the more likely the grass will become jagged and rough. So, adjust your pressure and size instead of distorting multiple times.

Step 10

Select a few blades of grass and vary the colors. Then copy and paste your grass shapes to quickly build up large areas.

Step 11

Notice how there are subtle color differences in the grass. This adds to the interest and realism of the grass.

Step 12

Draw a rectangle and select a moody green color. This rectangle will become the sky so it needs to have a gradient. The secret to making gradients transition smoothly from one color to the next is to start by making two of the same color points in the gradient palette (colors 1 and 2 are identical.)

Step 13

Select color 2 and change the slider shown at number 3 to achieve a smooth color shift.

Step 14

This is what your sky should look like.

Step 15

Copy and paste a blade of grass.

Step 16

Use the grass to make wispy shapes in the sky. Adjust the Opacity so that the shapes blend into the background.

Step 17

Copy and paste a few more grass shapes and vary their placement.

Step 18

To make the stars we'll draw a narrow oval to start.

Step 19

Use the Convert Anchor Point tool and click on the top and bottom points of the oval to make them pointy.

Step 20

Compress the oval, duplicate it, and rotate it to make a star.

Step 21

Copy and paste the star making sure to vary the size.

Step 22

Draw a circle, which will become the moon. Using the Pencil tool draw arbitrary shapes that mimic the Moon's craters. It's OK to draw outside the Moon's edges as we'll eliminate the overlapping areas next.

Step 23

Using the Pathfinder Palette click the Add to Shape option to merge your individual Moon craters (1). After you merge them, click Expand (2). Select both the Moon and the newly merged craters then click Divide (3). Delete the unnecessary extra shapes from the edges.

Step 24

Make rocks by using the Pencil tool and drawing rough shapes like below.

Step 25

Then add a gradient.

Step 26

Give your rock more detail by using the Artistic Ink palette (Window > Brush Libraries > Artistic > Artistic_Ink). For the example below, I've used Fire Ash Ink. Simply select the Pen tool, select the ink type, from the palette. Then draw a line (curved or straight). In order to see what you've drawn, make sure you have a stroke color specified.

Step 27

In order to make the ink spots the color of your choice you need to do two things. First, expand the ink spot by selecting Object (from the top) then Expand Appearance.

Step 28

Next go to Object (at the top) then select Ungroup. Keep Ungrouping the object until you cannot ungroup it any more (about 5 or 6 times.) Once you cannot ungroup it any more then you will be able to change the color of the ink.

Step 29

Duplicate the ink and arrange it to cover the rock.

Step 30

Move the rock behind the grass by copying and pasting the rock. Then vary the size shape to give the impression of different rocks.

Step 31

Your dramatic landscape environment is complete!

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User Comments

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Clemson July 9th

Very cool idea.
Andrei Constantin July 9th

Not half bad
Rick July 9th

Breathtaking.
pica July 9th

quite interesting approach
i feel like the grass is a bit too green
but the whole composition is pretty cool
Rina Miele July 9th

Grass is sexy.
Ali July 9th

Awesome, finally! I’ve been looking forward to something like this, I hope to see more. Id mostly like to see photo/car vectors..
Brent Nelson July 9th

Symbols are great. I don’t use them at all but I really appreciate this tutorial’s use of them! Saves so much time!
K3v July 9th

I really dig the result! Great work!
Shane July 9th

Tutorials of this quality are a great advertisement for Illustrator. Love the end result - thanks for posting.
Chris Spooner July 9th

I’ve never thought about using the Warp tool rather than drawing the curved lines directly with the Pen Tool, great tip!
Dan July 9th

I… dig… this. I have a new favortie tut here. I have no idea what I could use this on, and I don’t care. Art for arts sake thats what I am talking about. Great stuff. Thanks
MoNsTeR July 9th

Wow. This is a great tutorial… I will definitely try this on for size.

Thanks for posting this.
Braden Keith July 9th

Oh these tuts are getting better and better!
Grant Friedman July 9th

Nice tutorial. You could also convert the blades of grass into symbols and then use the symbol sprayer to quickly build up the blades. You could then use the symbol sizer/scruncher tools to vary the size and direction of the grass.
Danny July 9th

i really like this one, everything looks so calm!
Mark Abucayon July 9th

I like how they do it, awesome the word I can say to this tuts. great job.
Nate July 9th

Sickening sweet.
Khalid July 10th

Unbelievable ….

YOU R THE MAN

Reall Cool
Gilberto Saraiva July 10th

That is the needed level!
definitly awesome.
Jonathan July 10th

I’m glad you guys are liking this tutorial. I also see that some people have tried it out on Flickr, good work guys! I’ll make sure to do more cool tuts like this.

Thanks for the nice comments, it’s always appreciated!

Jonathan
Horus DB July 10th

I love it *-*
Daniel Geraldi July 10th

Great work!
But I prefer symbols!
sc July 10th

I ADORE THIS!
it has such a sweet charm about it! have you ever illustrated children’s books?
when i tried to click on the link to your site
“Visit Jonathan’s Website”
it said link not valid.
Nicolas July 13th

Great tut! I love the result!
Jonathan July 14th

Hey SC,

Thanks so much for the compliment. Nope, I’ve never illustrated for childrens books. I started off doing illustration and have transitioned to graphic design and art direction. I find myself doing illustrative work in my spare time.

If you have a project you’d like me to work on I’d be happy to work something out. Email me at user853 -at- gmail.com Thanks again for the compliments!
Danhbaweb20.com July 16th

Great blog! Thanks for share.
Nice to meet you !
Tim July 16th

inspiring indeed!
Nilson Saavedra July 22nd

it just amazing!!!, very nice, from Nicaragua, greeting for you man.
JuniHH July 24th

So simple, so beatiful.
Abhisek July 29th

As usual , great content.
runindiva July 31st

whoa!! this is nice….
Grafiko August 3rd

Nice, I will definitely try some of these techniques.
Joel Wires August 4th

+10 bonus points just for the grass.
jhon trujillo August 14th

Its a good work.
mRope August 20th

I love the grass part, always wanted to learn that!!
Barcusi September 4th

Hi Jonathan, great tut……….but(sry) How the hell do you draw the matte at the start, theres two paths there yeah?? I have had the same problem with another tut that says the same thing at the start. Am I missing something real basic here!? Any feedback guys would be well appreciated. Thanks again great result!
Jamil September 10th

Very inspiring man..i like it!
Joe Hrdina September 16th

This is exactly what I wanted to see. Great approach, it gives me confidence that I can create something almost as stunning [probably 10x more time than what you do].
pirhan September 22nd

Beautiful. I’ve been looking for a tutorial like this for quite some time.
raj timothy October 2nd

Good job man! I like it….. keep it up.
Sarah October 19th

wow!!! its realy cool.
Andre November 4th

I really like what you did, I just didnt like the rock you made, but overal was very good.
Fernando November 4th

I have a question for your, I would like to know what do you think about Illustrator compared againts Corel Draw, which do you think is better? why? in what ways?
Thanks and very good job